Improvement in hoppers for grinding-mills



M. REPLO GLE. Hoppers for Grinding Mills.

Patented June 17. 1873.

Jay! Witnesses:

Per

Attorneys;

AM PH OTU-UTHIIGRAPH /C 60 M K OSEORIVELLPROCESS UNITED STATES PATENTOFFICE.

MARTIN REPLOGLE, OF MOULTON, IOWA.

IMPROVEMENT IN HOPPERS FOR GRINDING-MILLS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 139,973, dated June 17,1873 application filed April 19, 1873.

To all whom "at may concern:

Be it known that I, MARTIN REPLoeLE, of Moulton, in the county ofAppanoose and State of Iowa, haveinvented a new and ImprovedSe'lf-Acting Grist Out-Off, of which the following is a specification:

For automatically closing one spout, and opening .the other, of a doubleor two part stock hopper of grist-mills, for insuring the instantsuccession of the grist held in reserve in one part of the hopper to theone ground out of the other part, so that the stones shall not run emptyand grind together, as they often do in consequence of lack of attentionby the miller, when the spout of the part holding the reserve has to beopened by hand, I propose to have a right-angled or anyequivalent-shaped valve arranged between two disks, and pivoted at theangle under the middle partition between the two spouts, so that by aquarter of a revolution on the axis one spout will be closed and theother opened, and also so that the side which is open will be subject toconsiderably more pressure by the grain passing through than the onewhich is closed by the grain in the hopper above, so that it cannotshift until the hopper from which the grain is running is empty, whenthe weight of the grain in the other hopper will instantly open it bythe weight on the side closing the spout, which stands while closing itin a horizontal position, or thereabout, so that the instant that theopen side is relieved of the pressure of the grain it will fall and openand raise the other up and close it. I propose to have a bell attachedto the axle of the valve, so as to sound each time the valve shifts andchanges the grists to notify the miller of the change.

Figure 1 is a sectional elevation of the said improved grist cut-off,taken on the line as w of Fig. 2, which is a plan View.

Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts.

A and 13 represent the two parts of the stock-hopper, divided by thepartition (J, under which the cut-01f valve D E is pivoted at the angleF. The said valve is arranged between the two circular disks G, which,above .the pivot F, extend above the sides of the hopper, and below itwork in the curved extension H of two sides of the hopper, at the bottomof which is the escape-passage I, which may discharge into the shoe orother millstone feed device. The parts D and E of the valve areconsiderably longer than the width of the passages I at the bottom ofthe hopper, so that when open they have a larger area and greater lengthfrom the axis exposed to the pressure of the grain, so that theirremaining open is insured until the grist in the open side is exhausted.

With this arraugementanother grist can be sent through the smutter tothe closed part of the hopper as soon as the other part has been opened,or as soon after as it may be convenient to do so, to be ready when onein the open part is ground out to open the cut-ott selfiactingly, andthus insure the continuous succession necessary to save damage to thestones, which often happens with the old arrangement, in case the milleris not present at the moment the grist being ground is exhausted.

The bell will sound at the moment the change takes place, and warn themiller to change the sacks.

Having thus described my invention, I claim as new, and desire to secureby Letters Patcut- The combination with a two-part hopper or spout, A B,of an automatic cut-off valve, D E G, substantially as specified.

MARTIN REPLOGLE. WVitnesses:

BAXTER WOOLDRIDGE,

. GEORGE B. REPLoeLE.

